Why the world needs more people like the late David Jackson - Ismail Mulla
For many of us, lockdown was a blur. We choose to keep memories of that deeply anxious and down right bizarre time locked away in the deep recesses of our minds.
One of the features for a lot of us working through this period was the so-called ‘Zoom call’. As a journalist it’s difficult to get a good read on someone through a screen. But there are some interviews from that time period that have me searching through the memory bank to recall where the conversation took place.
One such interview was with David Jackson. The founder of Hudson Contract, a provider of professional services to the construction industry and one of the country’s largest family-owned businesses, was full of life when I spoke to him in 2021.
Without getting to grips with his background you couldn’t tell that he’d fought off cancer three times. Or that he had started off as an apprentice draughtsman, left his job in management planning to go work as a labourer after being left mentally “shattered”.
He would go on to exhibit his entrepreneurial streak by spotting opportunities in the construction industry over the next few decades.
Sadly, David died recently at the age of 70 after a short illness. What he left behind was a number of life lessons. The first being that of resilience. Clearly, this was a man that was not going to let life’s challenges stop him from succeeding.
But perhaps the greatest impact David leaves behind is that on his beloved Bridlington. I recall vividly how passionate David got when talking about apprenticeships. It was personal for him. He had to go to Leeds in order to seek an opportunity. And he realised that the lack of opportunities for young people in his hometown would lead them down the wrong path.
While some entrepreneurs are simply too wrapped up in running their businesses and as such drift away from the communities in which they grew up, David was different. In many ways he was a throwback to the old-school industrialists who knew the importance of giving back.
He was the longstanding manager of the ‘Royal’ Burton Agnes Cricket Club, whose ground is associated with Queen Victoria, and a former chairman and director of Bridlington Rugby Club. As well as supporting many other charitable causes that made a difference in his hometown.
Instead of pulling up the ladder, he nailed it to the floor for others to come and affixed a set of hand rails to it.
“Everybody deserves a leg up and a start,” he said back in 2021. “If you can provide a leg up then you should.”
Following his death, family friend Glyn Simpson paid tribute, saying: “I can safely say he was the nicest man I have known.”
Hudson contract is a successful business trusted by more than 2,600 construction firms nationwide. But it is also a great enabler of opportunity helping more than 300 young people to learn trade skills. One of its well-known innovations was a sponsorship scheme to pay half the first year wages of apprentices taken on by local construction firms.
It’s a lesson to other businesses that can, to provide that “leg up” to young people. After all, young people are going to be the future of our workforce. It is also key to tackling social issues that are blighting communities up and down the country. The only way to tackle the so-called poverty of aspiration is to ensure that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
But what David left behind was not just lessons for businesses but also for our political class today. One of the biggest criticisms of Sir Keir Starmer’s Cabinet is that it is made up of lifelong politicians with little experience outside of politics. They don’t have a grasp on ‘real life’. Some may have grown up in challenging circumstances but the moment they escaped that environment they seldom looked back.
Instead you have managerial automatons who have few ideas on how to make life better for ordinary people. All they have to offer the public are hollow soundbites. Even promises of ‘jam tomorrow’ have disappeared.
How we could do with a few David Jacksons at the heart of Cabinet. People who have that lived experience and don’t forget their roots.
It’s fitting that even following his death David’s legacy is that of helping young people. The family requested that in lieu of flowers donations be made to the Freeman 1st Foundation, an organisation which provides financial and practical support to local young people who might otherwise be held back by their circumstances.